TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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'It's begun.'
Assassin Aesis quietly rose to his feet.
"What was that sound?"
"...Sounds like a dragon's roar."
The laborers whispered among themselves.
Most had no idea where the sound was coming from, but Aesis knew better.
'He actually did it. Wizard Ian.'
Aesis had heard the plan from Ian beforehand.
It was a bold, daring, and extrely dangerous plan.
'Ian must have stolen the Regent's dragon...!'
Though he'd thought it reckless, Ian had pulled it off beautifully.
Now it was Aesis's turn to move.
"F-fuck! The dragon!"
"Run!"
The black dragon Predius was breathing fire, turning the campsite into complete chaos.
Massive confusion had arrived.
Everyone was frantically trying to escape, completely distracted.
'Now's my chance.'
Aesis swiftly changed his position.
With the surrounding chaos, no one paid attention to a single laborer.
As planned, Ian hadn't touched the prisoner camp.
"Hey you! This isn't where you should—!"
"Excuse for a mont."
Aesis displayed his prized throwing knife skills, plunging a dagger into the guard's nape as he entered the prisoner camp.
"Pardon the intrusion, Your Majesty."
"...? Who are you?"
The Emperor looked at Aesis with a bewildered expression.
Aesis gave a slight nod in greeting.
"Aesis. A covert infiltration specialist contracted by Ian."
"Covert infiltration specialist...?"
"Wizard Ian wants you. Now, please follow ."
Clang!
Aesis easily unlocked the padlock and removed the Emperor from his cell.
"Ian, you say... Did Ian co too?"
"For now, yes. The situation is complicated, so I'll explain later."
Aesis naturally moved toward where Maria was being held.
He had already morized the geography of this place.
Terrain analysis was a basic skill for a professional, after all!
But even a 'professional' assassin like Aesis couldn't help but be slightly surprised by unexpected situations.
The prison holding Maria... was completely empty.
"Oh no..."
Chaos cos to everyone equally.
Soone had clearly beaten them to the prison.
"Your Majesty. I'm sorry, but we'll have to postpone our escape."
"Why?"
"The target has disappeared. There's a girl nad Maria Silverwind that Ian specifically asked to bring."
"Maria..."
The Emperor's face hardened as he fell into thought.
After a mont, he sohow acquired two horses.
"Impressive skills, Your Majesty."
"When it cos to horse theft, I had so practice in my youth."
Aesis chuckled.
As expected of the Holy Empire's Emperor—definitely not the obedient type.
The Emperor swung himself onto a horse.
"Target. I know Maria too. If she escaped on foot, she couldn't have gone far."
"Hmm. A girl the Emperor himself is concerned about."
"We don't have any particular connection. However..."
"However?"
The Emperor smiled and said:
"Ian. That friend really cherishes her."
"I see."
Aesis also mounted a horse.
Before long, the two discovered Maria.
"Shh."
...Along with so unexpected company.
After Maria and Lisa were captured as prisoners.
Maria received nurous "visitation" requests.
Lisa sat quietly, observing the situation.
"Maria. From now on, you'll follow only ."
"..."
"Forget everything from the past. From now on, you're part of Roxlan."
Duke Roxlan ordered Maria to follow him, and...
"The Celestial Wizard has ordered you to join the necromancy research group starting next week."
"..."
"He said he won't forgive tardiness, so please be punctual."
Bertholdt's necromancers told Maria to participate in their necromancy research group.
Maria gave no response to any of them.
Lisa Silverwind mockingly said to Maria:
"Quite popular, aren't you? Our baroness."
Maria stared at Lisa before speaking.
"You. I feel like I rember you sohow."
"In what way specifically?"
"When I was young... we t, didn't we?"
Lisa laughed hollowly.
Hearing such words from Maria made her feel unbearably pitiful about her situation.
"You rember sothing from when you were a baby. Impressive."
"Baby...?"
"Yes. You don't know , but I know you."
Lisa clearly preserved her old mories.
Maria was too young to rember, but Lisa rembered their first eting.
A sister who wasn't quite a sister.
Maria was Lisa's half-sister.
"The day Silverwind Castle fell... Father called your na, not Mother's."
"..."
"He insisted that you, at least, should sohow escape."
Lisa couldn't understand why he made such a choice.
Lord Silverwind must have had his own justice.
Perhaps the kind of justice that wanted to save a newborn baby.
In any case, the Baron's efforts weren't in vain.
Both Maria and Lisa had survived.
"I spent my whole life running from Duke Roxlan."
"I... was in a naless countryside village, so I didn't know much."
"I envy you. Not having those terrible mories."
It wasn't the ti for such conversation.
But once they started talking, they couldn't stop.
Perhaps Lisa had wanted to share her story with soone.
"After a lifeti of running, I finally found soone who could help . That person was Duke Fargar."
"..."
"But... to lose so pathetically."
When Duke Fargar raised an army for her sake.
Lisa felt elated, as if she had beco the protagonist of the world.
Everything would work out.
Everything would return to how it should be.
...But that was just a brief dream.
Lisa returned to cold reality.
"If I had a knife, I would have stabbed you. Maria."
"Sister..."
"I bet everything on Duke Fargar. I was prepared to do anything to escape from Duke Roxlan, that devil."
"..."
"But what about you? Why did you suddenly appear and take my future... the signet ring? Sothing Father put in out of pity for you...?"
"..."
"You... aren't the heir of Silverwind."
Maria remained silent.
She understood Lisa's pain.
Restoring the Silverwind barony was Lisa's dream and goal.
Though a fugitive, she had t Duke Fargar and successfully secured military cooperation.
If she had gone just a little further... she would have achieved her dream.
But Lisa failed.
All because of Maria.
Because of a half-sister who appeared out of nowhere.
If Maria had been in the opposite situation... could she have forgiven Lisa?
Maria couldn't answer.
She, too, might have wanted to stab Lisa with a knife.
"This is the first ti we've talked like this."
"...Yes, it is."
"The person I respect and love most in the world always tells sothing."
Suddenly?
Lisa was a bit taken aback, but she didn't interrupt Maria.
"Ian is a wizard. I even learned magic from him."
"So?"
"He says that magic is [communication]."
"...?"
It was difficult for Lisa, a non-wizard, to understand.
But Maria had received theoretical magic education from Ian many tis.
"Great Wizard Maronius created magic for a world without misunderstandings."
At that mont.
Maria gently grasped Lisa's hand.
Lisa was startled but couldn't pull away from Maria.
"So I don't want to have misunderstandings with my sister."
"Misunderstandings... what do you...?"
"I'll convey my true feelings, like approaching a mystery."
Lisa and Maria's eyes t.
Maria's eyes were filled with a wizard's pure will.
"I don't dislike you, sister."
"...What?"
"I might co to dislike you in the future. But right now... yes. I like you."
"Are you in your right mind?"
"Hehe... of course I am."
If it had been Ian, he would have just shrugged it off with "Ah~ Maria's always like that~".
Unfortunately, Lisa didn't know what kind of person Maria was...
"You're my only family left in the world, sister."
"..."
"Is it so strange to try to like a family mber I'm eting for the first ti?"
Lisa was completely speechless.
Not just speechless.
Her vision slowly blurred with tears.
Lisa disliked Maria.
How could she like soone who had snatched her dream right in front of her eyes?
But at the sa ti.
She didn't want to hate Maria...
She had lived her entire life alone. As a fugitive.
The urge to love family was hard to suppress.
Even if that person had taken everything from her.
"If you want, I can give you the Silverwind title."
"...What?!"
Lisa was shocked.
Did she just hear sothing incredibly shocking?!
"What do you an?!"
"Exactly what I said. Actually, I'm not interested in titles. I claid the succession to help Count Francis, but that's all."
It was the truth.
Maria never had any desire for titles.
She was already promised to marry Ian. What more could she want?
It even felt botherso to her.
Maria wanted to live with Ian in Talian.
Maria thought there was little aning in managing a domain from afar. Count Francis probably wouldn't like it either.
"...That's not sothing that can be resolved just because you want it."
"I know."
Maria was already recognized as the next heir.
It wasn't sothing she could easily give up just because she wanted to.
It was an issue requiring coordination with the Duke and various nobles.
She couldn't give a definitive answer here...
"Still... thank you."
Lisa understood Maria's intentions.
That Maria truly had no desire for the title, and through proper negotiations, could yield the barony to Lisa.
And...
That she didn't have to keep fighting with a family mber she had t with such difficulty.
"I should be thanking you."
Maria slowly embraced Lisa.
"Thank you for surviving."
Ti was plentiful.
Though they were captured and imprisoned, the two had many conversations.
Until a big commotion broke out outside.
"Maria! Co with !"
"Duke Roxlan...!"
Duke Roxlan and his subordinates seized the two.
There wasn't even ti to understand what was happening.
"That Ian bastard is causing trouble."
"Ian...!"
"He's certainly after you. Pathetic fool."
Duke Roxlan hadn't grasped the situation either.
But with an almost instinctive sense, he moved Maria away.
He was [certain] this commotion was aid at rescuing Maria.
"If he thought it would be so easy, he's mistaken..."
That's when it happened.
Soone blocked Duke Roxlan's path.
"Hmph."
The Duke snorted.
It was none other than... the Emperor.
Though dressed in rags and filthy all over.
The Emperor's eyes shone with sharpness.
"Duke Roxlan."
The Emperor said.
"Release those girls."
The Duke replied.
"Why should I?"
Just then, a dagger flew from the bushes.
The dagger precisely pierced the throat of the Duke's guard.
"Ack!"
"..."
Eventually, a strange man erged from the bushes.
"You should have said, 'Do as I say if you don't want to die!' Your Majesty."
The Emperor looked at Aesis and smiled slightly.
"Yes. I've learned sothing good."
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